Fiber texturing apparatus utilizing a continuous,moving,apertured surface



Sept. 8, 1970 L. o. EDMONDS 3,526,935

FIBER TEXTURING APPARATUS UTILIZING A CONTINUOUS, MOVING, APERTURED SURFACE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 14, 1968 HEATING FLUiD COOLING FLUID N57 INVENTOR.

L. O. EDMO NDS A TTORNEVS p 1970v L. o. EDMONDS FIBER TEXTURING APPARATUS UTILIZING-A CONTINUOUS: MOVING,

APER'IURED SURFACE 2 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed 001.. 14. 1968 FIG. 3

FIG. 4

FIG. 5

O O O O O O 0 O 0 O O O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 FIG. 6

INVENTOR.

L. O. EDMONDS ATTORNEYS nited States Patent 3,526,936 FIBER TEXTURING APPARATUS UTILIZING A CONTINUOUS, MOVING, APERTURED SURFACE Lee 0. Edmonds, Bartlesville, Okla., assignor to Phillips Petroleum Company, a corporation of Delaware Filed Oct. 14, 1968, Ser. No. 767,115

Int. Cl. D02g N00 US. Cl. 281.2 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE One or more yarns are crimped by contacting a moving apertured surface, with a portion of the surface subsequently being subjected to reduced pressure on the side opposite the yarns to force portions of the yarns into the apertures. The resulting crimp is set by heating the crimped yarn, for example with steam, and then permitting the yarn to cool, preferably by contact with a cooling fluid. The crimped yarn is then removed from the apertured surface. The apertured surface can be a rotating drum or a continuous belt, and can be provided with slots at an angle to the direction of movement, or a plurality of circular openings.

The invention relates to method and apparatus for texturing yarn. In one aspect the invention relates to method and apparatus for simultaneously crimping a plurality of individual yarns in a single crimping mechanism. In another aspect the invention relates to crimping a mat containing a plurality of yarns or a nonwoven batting of staple fibers, continuous filaments or a combination thereof.

It is an object of the invention to provide novel method and apparatus for crimping fibers. It is an object of the invention to provide method and apparatus for simultaneously crimping a large number of yarns, collectively or individually. It is an object of the invention to provide means for sequentially crimping, relaxing and setting of fibers.

' "Other objects, aspects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from a study of the specification, the drawings and the appended claims to the invention.

In the drawings FIG. 1 is an elevational view, partly in cross section of apparatus in accordance with one embodiment of the invention; FIG. 2 is a plan view of the apparatus of FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is an exploded detail view of the slide valve of FIG. 2; FIGS. 4 and 5 are partial cross tured surface of the drum of FIG. 1.

Referring now to the drawings, and to FIGS. 1 and 2 in particular, a fibrous web 11 of yarns is drawn from supply roll 12 and passed around the exterior surface of a portion of the periphery of revolving drum 13 whereon the yarns are crimped. The cylindrical member 14 of drum 13 is provided with an apertured section 15 extending completely around the periphery thereof. Section 15 has a plurality of openings in the shape of slots 16. Slots 16 can be formed by perforations in cylindrical member 14 or by spacing a plurality of bar members 17 to form section 15 of cylindrical member 14. The interior of drum 13 is divided into chambers 1823 by sheet members 24-29 which extend radially outwardly from shaft 31 to the interior surface of cylindrical member 14. Valve plate 32 (FIGS. 2 and 3) is fixedly connected to one end Wall 33 of drum 13. Passageways 34-39 extend through valve plate 32 and through end wall 33 in communication with chambers 1823, respectively. One end of shaft 31 extends through an opening 41 in stationary valve plate 42 to bearing member 43. The other end of shaft 31 extends through bearing 44 to a driving means, such as motor 45. Stationary valve plate 42 ('FIG. 3) is provided with annular grooves 46, 47 and 48 having ports 49, 50 and 51, respectively. During the rotation of drum 13, each of passageways 34-39 moves through a path which contains grooves 46-48. Grooves 46 and 47 and grooves 47 and 48 are separated by areas 52 and 53 which are at least the width of passageways 34-39 to prevent direct communication between the grooves. Conduit 54 connects vacuum means 55 to port 49, while a source of heating fluid 5'6 and a source of cooling fluid 57 are connected by conduits 58 and 59 to ports 50 and 51, respectively.

The drum 13 is rotated in a clockwise direction, as viewed in FIG. 1. Supply roll 12 (or suitable intermediate guide means) can be positioned with respect to drum 13 to cause the web 11 to tangentially contact the apertured section 15 at a location which overlies the chamber 23 following the chamber 18 undergoing a reduction in pres sure. Preferably, the web 11 has a width substantially equal to the width of apertured section 15. This provides for a greater efliciency in the utilization of the vacuum pump 55. However, simultaneously subjecting the length of web 11 overlying an entire chamber to the reduced pressure can cause some cold drawing of the yarns. Where this is undesirable, guide means can be provided to cause the web 11 to tangentially contact section 15 at a location overlying the chamber 18 undergoing a pressure reduction to incrementally subject web 11 to the reduced pressure. In both embodiments the reduced pressure in the chamber causes portions of the web 11 to be sucked into slots 16, imparting crimp to the yarns.

Belt 61 passes around roller 62 and into contact with the web 11 after portions thereof have been sucked into slots -16 and prior to the removal of the reduced pressure. Belt 61 travels with the crimped web 11 to roller 63 and then passes around roller 63 and drive roller 64 back to roller 62. Roller 64 is mounted in bearings 65 and 66 and is driven by motor '67 or other suitable driving means, for example a belt drive from motor 45. Bearings for rollers 62 and 63 have been omitted from the drawings for sake of simplicity. Belt 61 thus holds Web 11 in the crimped condition in slots 16 during the time the paths of drum 13 and belt 61 coincide.

As a chamber is rotated from the position of chamber 18 to the position of chamber 19 illustrated in FIG. 1, the movement of valve plate 32 with respect to stationary valve plate 42 disconnects the chamber from the vacuum means 55 and connects the chamber to heating fluid source 56. The connection to the heating fluid continues through the position of chamber 20 in FIG. 1. The heating fluid can be any suitable fluid which has been heated for example, air, water, saturated steam, superheated steam, nitrogen, and the like, with air or steam being preferred for economic reasons. With some yarns, such as nylon, steam has the additional advantage of an enhanced eifect on the yarn. The temperature of the heating fluid can be any desired value, but generally will be in the range of about F. to about 500 F. The heating fluid enters the chamber by Way of conduit 58 and then passes outwardly through slots 16 containing the crimped yarn. If desired, belt 61 can be permeable to the heating fluid to permit greater movement of the heating fluid through the crimped yarn. While the invention has been described as utilizing a heating fluid, it is within the contemplation of the invention to heat bars 17 by electrical resistance heating or induction heating, or to heat the web 11 by means of a heating means positioned on the opposite side of the portion of belt 61 which contacts the web 11 in the heating zone. The heating of the web 11 in the crimped condition relaxes the yarns so that the crimp will become permachamber from the heating fluid source 56 and connect the chamber to the cooling fluid source 57. The cooling fluid can be any desirable fluid, but will generally be air for economic reasons. The cooling fiuid flushes the heating fluid from the chamber and cools both the chamber walls and the web 11 to set the crimped web. The cooled, crimped web is pulled from slots 16 and passed to windup means 71. If desired, a portion of the cooling fluid can be used to remove the web from the apertures 16 in addition to or instead of tensioning of the web.

Web 11 can be in the form of a single yarn or a plurality of yarns, either staple or having at least one continuous filament, or a combination of staple fibers and continuous filaments. Each of the yarns can be in physical contact with the adjacent yarns to produce a crimped tow, which can be cut into staple, or the yarns can be maintained in parallel spaced apart positions, permitting the introduction of a beam or the separate recovery of the individual crimped yarns. Web 11 can also be in the form of a nonwoven batting of continuous filaments or staple fibers or a combination thereof. Guide means can be provided between supply roll 12 and drum 13 and also between drum 13 and the individual or beam windup means 71 to maintain the individual yarns separate. If desired, drum 13 can also be provided with guides on the surface thereof to maintain the individual yarns separate. It is within the contemplation of the invention to position individual supply rolls 12 in such a manner as to introduce twist into the individual yarns as they are passed to drum 13. This twist or any portion thereof can be removed and even an opposite twist introduced into the individual yarns after the crimped yarn leaves drum 13. Also originally untwisted yarn can be twisted after leaving drum 13. The twisting of the individual yams provides three dimensionally crimped yarns.

Referring now to FIG. 4, bars .17 in drum 13 are formed in the shape of triangles or circular sectors with the apexes being directed radially inwardly, to increase the width of the slot 16' at the inner end. In FIG. bars 17" are formed in the shape of cylinders. In FIG. 6 the openings 16" are in the form of circles rather than slots. Preferably the circles are arrayed in staggered rows where the distance between adjacent rows is equal to or less than the diameter of the individual holes. Apertures of other shapes, for example ellipse, parallelogram, and the like can be employed.

While drum 13 has been illustrated with six chambers, it is obvious that any desired number can be employed. While the invention has been described in terms of a drum crimper, it is also within the contemplation of the invention to utilize an apertured belt conveyor rather than a rotary drum. A heating means can be positioned adjacent web 11 between supply roll 12 and drum 13 in addition to or in lieu of the heating of a portion of drum 13.

Reasonable variations and modifications are possible within the scope of the foregoing disclosure, the drawings and the appended claims to the invention.

I claim:

17 Apparatus comprising a rotating drum having apertures in the cylindrical wall member thereof, the interior of said drum being divided into at least three compartments; means for rotating said drum so that each of said compartments sequentially passes through at least first, second and third stations, at least a first one of said compartments being in said first station while at least a second one of said compartments is in said second station and at least a third one of said compartments is in said third station; means for feeding a fibrous web into contact with the exterior surface of said cylindrical wall member at least by said first station; means at said first station for reducing the pressure in each of said compartments during the passage thereof through said first station to thereby produce a differential pressure across the portions of said web over the apertures in the portion of said cylindrical Wall member in said first station to force portions of said web into the apertures being subjected to the reduced pressure, to crimp said web; means for heating the thus crimped web at least by said second station; means associated with said third station for cooling the thus heated crimped web; a continuous belt; means for passing said belt into contact with said web at said second and third stations to retain the portions of said web in said apertures; and means for removing the resulting at least partially cooled web from said cylindrical wall member.

2. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said means for heating comprises means for introducing a heated fluid into at least one of said compartments as the respective compartment passes through said second station; and wherein said means for cooling comprises means for passing a cooling fluid into at least one of said compartments as the respective compartment passes through said third station.

3. Apparatus in accordance with claim 2 wherein said belt is permeable to said heated fluid and said cooling fluid.

4. Apparatus in accordance with claim 2 wherein said means for passing a cooling fluid also supplies said cool-' ing fluid to each chamber to a point beyond the end of contact of said belt with said at least partially cooled web to at least aid in removing the portions of the web from the apertures in said cylindrical wall member.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,204,341 6/1940 Cobb 2872.15 XR 2,313,630 3/1943 Dockerty 1966 XR 2,394,165 2/ 1946 Getaz 2872.15 2,623,266 12/1952 Hemmi 2872.15 XR 2,669,001 2/1954 Keen 2872.15

DORSEY NEWTON, Primary Examiner 

